Help me replace ancient speakers - or not


Looking forward to your collective wisdom...

Short version:
Should I replace my 40 year old Allison One speakers with something made within, oh, the last couple of decades??  And can I get something reasonably full-range, that can fit into my small NYC living room, for, say, $2500 or less?  Used is fine. 

Long version:
I've had these Allison Ones for about 10 years, and they replaced Allison Sixes that I purchased new in 1982 or so.  So I've had very similar speaker "sound" for a verrrry long time. 

I've been interested in hi-fi since the 80s but rarely purchase anything new - clearly!  I'm a musician and equipment/hobby money has usually gone to instruments and music instead.  I try to get improvements on a small budget. 

Rest of the system is a NAD C352 integrated (Craigslist find!) with Tara Labs jumpers, a Marantz CD6005 cd player, and an Auralic Aries MIni streamer, the last two running through an Audio GD r2r DAC.  This is all cheapish stuff, but it sounds good in our small apartment, or it does most of the time.  

I'm listening to a Geri Allen trio date with Dave Holland and Jack DeJohnette, and her piano sounds full and tonally correct, and the bass and drums are balanced and impactful.  There isn't a huge amount of imaging  - Allisons don't really do that - but it all seems pretty correct.  BUT - maybe I'm just used to it?  

Other factors: we like to listen to everything from jazz to opera to poorly-recorded music from all over the world, at realistic volumes.  Scale is important, imaging not so much in my book.  My ears have taken a beating from years of loud gigs so I favor a warm-ish sound, but am open to trying something totally different.  I'm always drawn to the Audio Note rooms at shows, and a pair of AN-E's would be my dream.  Thinking of Klipsch Heresy's too, for some reason.  Gosh, I guess these are pretty ancient designs too.  

Any thoughts welcome and sorry for the novel. 
sforrey

Showing 1 response by michaellent

I hope this post doesn’t grate too hard on the real Audiofile crowd here.
I use mix of professional Audio and  mid-fi Audio equipment to achieve my current version (>$ >) audio bliss. I have a Yamaha mixer for my pro, and a Rogue 99 preamp, to play LPs.
Line-out and from the preamp to my powered Focal Solo Be6 speakers.  Your MAC integrated has 2 line out.  
I had a great pair of boutique speakers (now passed along to my daughter)  in the early 80s. They have duel-coil winding Focal Drivers, and still sounds great.  I discovered the brand name the hard way at a party where someone else was Acting DJ!   Zalatron! UGH!  I put Focal speakers in a car 20 years ago. They were like $55 a piece. They were great back then.  The  near field studio Focal Be6 are great now at $2200 a pair, new!  They have a great deal of mid-range detail. Clarity at the high-end.  Front port for base/close to the wall installation.  BEATIFULLY finished & XLR only input.   Adjustable shelf /. I go from my RCA out preamp to  RCA IN on my M-audio Sub, then to The Focals with XLR.  It’s balanced-with that though.  This serves both Nearfield mixing needs and wonderful audio from pre-recorded sources.
 I use vinyl myself!  My BentUnderground studio is 11 feet deep w  7 foot ceiling..  I know you said you don’t care about it too much, but in addition to all of that you get an incredible Soundstage.

Bent Underground